Stones closing in on Everton return

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has revealed John Stones could return from injury against QPR on Monday.

Published

12 December 2014

The England defender appeared set to be sidelined until the new year after damaging ankle ligaments during a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United in October.

However, Stones has recovered swiftly from surgery and is in contention to feature against Harry Redknapp's side.

Martinez said: "John is ahead of schedule - probably two or three weeks ahead - but I would expect that. He's such a quick healer and he hasn't stopped for one second trying to win those small margins to get back early.

"He's come back and trained once with the team and he came through that really, really well.

"Now it's just a matter of making a good measurement of when it's right to allow him to be involved in a competitive game.